Noticeboard

From September 2015 the Phlebotomy Clinic will be held Monday - Thursday 8 am - 12 noon. Please note the clinic may close for new arrivals at 11.30 am if patients are already queuing.

Cervical smear and repeat contraception pill/injection appointments now available to book on line with Donna, Practice Nurse. Look for the Nurse/HCA sessions to find these appointments. Patients are booking these appointments inappropriately. The appointments (as indicated in the appointment name) are only for female cervical smear tests or contraceptive pill/injections.

Pregabalin and Gabapentin will be legally reclassified as Controlled Drugs on 1st April 2019. To prepare for this, our clinical system will treat these drugs as Controlled Drugs from 19th March.

Prescriptions produced for Pregabalin or Gabapentin prior to 19th March will not be legally dispensable after 1st April.

Prescriptions produced for Pregabalin or Gabapentin after 19th March will only be valid for 28 days.

It will NOT be possible to repeat dispense Pregabalin or Gabapentin after 19th March

Order by 6 pm on weekdays and collect your repeat prescription 2 working days later, after 2 pm.

For example : repeat prescriptions ordered on a Monday by 6 pm will be ready on Wednesday after 2 pm,

(excluding Bank holidays).

If your medication needs to be re-authorised by the doctor, it will take longer to process.

Due to the high volume of telephone calls received, the reception team are unable to check whether repeat prescriptions are ready within the two working day time frame.

SystmOnline can now be accessed via the above link as well as the link on the latest news page.

To use this service, please ask a member of the reception team for more details. You will require a user name and password - proof of identification is required.

The practice does not accept telephone requests for medication

Patients will be able to order medication by one of the following options :

Using SystmOnline medication ordering

Many chemists offer a free service; they will request and collect your prescription, and deliver your medication to your home, if requested - ask your local pharmacist for more information.

By post - using the right hand side of your prescription, tick the items you require. If you enclose a SAE, we will return the prescription to you by post.

At the surgery - using the right hand side of your prescription, tick the items you require. (If the surgery is closed, please use the post box, this is situated to the left hand side of the main entrance/window. The post box is emptied each working day.)

Prescribing of over the counter medicines is changing. Your GP, nurse or pharmacist will not generally give you a prescription for over the counter (OTC) medicines for a range of minor health conditions.

Instead, over the counter medicines are available to buy in a pharmacy or supermarket in your local community.

The team of health professionals at your local pharmacy can offer help and clinical advice to manage minor health concerns and if your symptoms suggest it’s more serious, they’ll ensure you get the care you need.

If you or someone you care for uses the same medicines regularly, you may be able to benefit from using the NHS Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD) service. This means you won’t have to re-order or collect your repeat prescriptions from your GP practice every time you need more medicine.

Step 1

Talk to your GP or the person who prescribes your medicines and ask them if you can use Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD). Your prescriber will usually be your doctor.

If your prescriber thinks that you could use eRD for your regular medicines, they will ask you for permission to share information about your treatment with your pharmacist. This will help your pharmacist to give your prescriber feedback about your treatment and provide you with useful advice.

Your GP or prescriber will then authorise a number of eRD prescriptions. This will be based on your circumstances and clinical need. These eRD prescriptions will then be supplied by your pharmacy at regular intervals.

Step 2

Collect your first eRD prescription from your pharmacy.

Step 3

Next time you need more medicines, go back to your pharmacy.

Before dispensing the next issue of your prescription, your pharmacy will ask you the following questions:

Have you seen any health professionals (GP, nurse or hospital doctor), since your last repeat prescription was supplied?

Have you recently started taking any new medicines - either on prescription or that you have bought over the counter?

Have you been having any problems with your medication or experiencing any side effects?

Are there any items on your repeat prescription that you don’t need this month?

If you don’t need all of the medicines on your prescription, let the pharmacy staff know, so that they only supply the medicines you need. This will help to reduce waste and save the NHS money.

Step 4

When your pharmacy supplies your prescription, they will advise you to contact your GP practice to arrange for your medication to be reviewed and if it is clinically appropriate to issue another eRD prescription.

Your doctor or practice nurse may want you to make an appointment to see them before they will authorise more eRD prescriptions.